Boss rues missed chances in draw

Cox reflects on ‘good’ point, but believes our team did enough to take all three.

Manager Paul Cox was disappointed that our team were unable to claim maximum points, despite coming from behind to earn a well-deserved point in today’s 1-1 draw with York City in Sky Bet League Two.

A mistake by Sascha Studer was punished by Diego De Girolamo, as the Minstermen – playing just their third match under the newly-appointed Russ Wilcox – went in 1-0 to the good at the interval.

However, our team looked rejuvenated after the re-start and got back on level terms on the hour mark, when Daniel Carr slammed the ball home from the edge of the six-yard box, following some good work in the air by Vadaine Oliver.

Carr, Rakish Bingham and skipper Adam Murray, amongst others, then had chances to win the game in a frantic last half-hour, which saw us on top for large spells.

Nevertheless, despite the pressure – which was especially intense as the game drew nearer to its conclusion, we were unable to find a way past York ‘keeper Alex Cisak and register what would have been a much-deserved three points.

Speaking in his post-match interview, Cox said: “In the second half, I thought we were excellent. We were camped in York’s half and had numerous chances to score, but things are tough at the minute.

“It’s tough when you come into a game and on the morning of the game you lose another centre-half. We had to re-jig [our formation] and it was an hour before kick-off that we decided that we’d go with 4-4-2 due to [available] personnel, so a massive amount of credit needs to be given to the boys, because I thought they were excellent.”

He continued: “We said at half-time that we want to be positive. We changed Rakish Bingham and Daniel Carr around, and I thought Rakish found a little bit more space on the flanks.

“’Tayls’ [Rob Taylor] started picking the ball up and we started affecting York [when we were] going forward. We looked a little bit more comfortable in possession, we played a simple pass when we needed to, and I thought we really affected the game with everything that we did.”

Cox also had particular praise for debutant frontman, Vadaine Oliver, who put pen-to-paper on a one-month loan with us only yesterday.

He added: “I think there needs to be a special mention for Vadaine, who was out of this world, because everything he did in terms of leading the frontline, was excellent. We only brought him off towards the end, because he had cramp.”

“We just needed that second goal. Some of the chances that flashed across the goal and across the six-yard box, we need to start putting away.

“We’ve come away from home again and picked up a really good point. If we can start picking up those three points at home now, we’ll start climbing the table and be in a more healthy position.”

Paul Cox’s full post-match interview will be available on Stags Player shortly. To subscribe, click here.